‘Utterly inhumane’: Mrauk-U witnesses recount hospital airstrike horror

For the first time in his life, *Pyae Phyo Naing, a 24-year-old man from Mrauk-U, Rakhine State, watched in horror as widespread destruction tore through his hometown. Once a peaceful and tourist friendly site, the town is roiling from one of the worst airstrikes to hit Myanmar since the 2021 coup.The scenes from Mrauk-U look like hell on earth. Fire blazing through a crowded hospital, bodies scattered through the metallic wreckage, and the piercing screams of women and children.Pyae Phyo Naing, who uses a pseudonym, says he was paralysed with fear and struggled to mentally take in the scale of the devastation and human suffering he was witnessing when junta jet fighters struck a major hospital in the urban area of Mrauk-U on Wednesday evening. The airstrike killed at least 34 people, including children and infants, and over 70 others injured. “The hospital was in ruins, with bodies scattered and fires still burning,” Pyae Phyo Naing told Myanmar Now. As a volunteer with the Mrauk-U Youth Association, he arrived just 30 minutes after the airstrike and was one of the first people to respond to the attack. Upon arriving at the site, he saw Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic armed group from Rakhine State, members and local people searching for victims, while others tried to extinguish the raging fires. “At least four members of our youth association who were helping with the hospital’s security were killed in the attack,” he said. “Their bodies were completely torn apart, and nothing could be recovered.”The airstrike left the hospital compound in ruins. Buildings were flattened, roofs torn away, and a large crater—about the height of an adult—was visible inside the grounds, with human remains scattered nearby. Two patients are still missing. And one patient drowned after jumping into a pond in an attempt to escape the airstrike. A group of medical workers and volunteers clear the dead from the wreckage and prepare the bodies to be identified in the aftermath of a hospital bombing in Rakhine State’s Mrauk-U. The attack is one of the worst mass killing events to hit Myanmar since the conflict began in 2021. (Photo: Myanmar Now) Sources described the event to Myanmar Now, saying they witnessed two Myanmar military jet fighters flying low before delivering their catastrophic payload, devastating the crowded hospital, destroying the main building, surgical and orthopaedic wards and other important areas.Locals in the area say the attack had to have been deliberate. The facility serves as a major healthcare centre for residents across Rakhine State, much of which is under the control of the AA. “We, the United League of Arakan / AA, will continue to do everything we must to ensure justice for our people,” Khaing Thuka, the spokesperson of AA told Myanmar Now on Friday. Myanmar Now spoke to witnesses of the attack and dispatched reporters to the burial site and bombing site in Mrauk-U on Thursday. Reporters found a harrowing scene, with bodies scattered across the site and relatives weeping beside them. Some victims were so badly mutilated that they were unrecognisable. Myanmar Now reporters identified that two bombs hit the hospital, striking the maternity ward and the area near the operating theatre, where night-shift staff were on duty. At least three people were killed instantly near the operating theatre. The attack reflects the junta’s growing reliance on air power as it loses ground to resistance forces across the country. Unable to hold territory in many areas, the military has increasingly turned to airstrikes to target towns, villages and civilian infrastructure, including schools, monasteries and hospitals. Rights groups say the strikes are often indiscriminate and carried out with little regard for civilian casualties, deepening the humanitarian crisis and spreading fear far beyond active front lines. A representative of the Ponnagyun Youth Association, who also visited the bombing site, told Myanmar Now that at least 16 people from Ponnagyun Township were among the casualties in the attack. “We have so far transported at least three bodies to Ponnagyun Township upon the request of their families,” the source said. In the aftermath of the bombing, women across Mrauk-U were left devastated, many collapsing in grief after losing children, husbands and other loved ones in the attack. (Photo: Myanmar Now) He said Mrauk-U Hospital serves communities across Rakhine State, including areas under Arakan Army control. Those killed and wounded came from multiple townships, and his group is focusing its assistance on affected families from Ponnagyun Township, while preparing to provide them with small financial support. “I’ve never felt anything like this before and it breaks my heart,” he said. “They dropped 500-pound bombs on the hospital. Do they really have to go this far? It’s utterly inhumane.” The attack on Mrauk-U Hospital on Wednesday drew condemnation from the international community including the World Health Organization. The WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was appalled by the strike, warning that it would severely disrupt access to health care for thousands of people in Rakhine State. Writing on the social media platform X, Tedros said: “Every attack on health care is an attack on humanity. Health facilities, patients and health workers must be protected at all times. Stop attacks on health care!” Despite international condemnation, the military regime carried out further airstrikes on Thursday in Kyaukphyu Township, the site of Chinese-backed investments, killing at least eight people and injuring nine others. Efforts to protect the hospital from airstrikes and to safeguard people’s lives remain a challenge, a resistance fighter close to the AA told Myanmar Now. “Warplanes are always flying above us,” he said. “It’s impossible to stay alert and cautious all the time, hoping that it’s not our turn.” A mother clutches her baby as she moves through a graveyard in Mrauk-U after junta warplanes destroyed Mrauk-U Hospital, killing 35 people and injuring dozens. (Photo: Myanmar Now) Even before the airstrike on Mrauk-U Hospital, seeking medical care in Arakan Army–controlled areas of Rakhine State was already fraught with fear, as the junta has repeatedly carried out airstrikes on residential areas and other civilian targets. Yet after the attack, residents from Mrauk-U as well as other areas, are considering staying away from hospitals and other crowded areas, citing legitimate fears of further strikes. At the same time, healthcare workers are struggling to provide care amid growing insecurity and a junta blockade of medicines and essential goods, local social welfare groups said. “Many people panic even at the sound of a passing car or motorcycle,” Pyae Phyo Naing said. “It was truly terrifying. I kept thinking, does it really take just a moment for people to die? Why do human lives seem to have no value to the junta?”*Some names in this story were changed to protect them from reprisals from the junta.

‘Utterly inhumane’: Mrauk-U witnesses recount hospital airstrike horror

Residents, volunteers and reporters describe scenes of chaos and loss after Myanmar military jets bombed a hospital in Rakhine State, killing at least 34 people and injuring more than 70

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